Sponsored By GenealogyBank

30 June 2011

Years ago, I wrote a county in Virginia and asked for the marriage register entry for my ancestors. The county office sent me a copy of their 1798 entry in the marriage register. I didn't ask for anything else and they didn't send anything else.

Imagine my surprise when a relative sent me copies of the corresponding marriage bonds. I asked her where she got them and the reply was the same courthouse where the marriage register copy had been obtained. The difference was that she knew to also ask for the marriage bonds and at that time, I didn't.

29 June 2011

When copying or scanning an entry from a record, particularly one that is handwritten "free-form" in some type of journal, copy at least the entire page on which the entry appears. Copy a page before and after if possible. It makes it easier to interpret handwriting and the entry later, particularly if the person who wrote the record abbreviated, had difficult to read handwriting, etc.

28 June 2011

Remember that some records, particularly church records, may have no page numbers. Creating a citation for these records can be difficult. Often the best way is to include the name of the village, the type of record (christenings, marriages, funerals, etc.) and the year. Do something--so you or someone else can find the record again if you need to.

27 June 2011

I know not everyone uses a research log, but at least try and leave yourself an audit trail or enough breadcrumbs to retrack your research steps. It can be exciting to be finding new information, but to go back later and remember "why" something was obtained or "how" this "new" person fit can be difficult. Type notes, send yourself emails,, but do something to record why you were doing what you were doing as you were doing it. Sometimes the reasons are obvious, but other times they are not.

26 June 2011

Skipping the introduction to a book, microfilm, or any record can create research problems and make brick walls even worse. Declarations of intent were destroyed in a 19th century fire in Hamilton County, Ohio. They were copied from the damaged originals and those copied records were kept and eventually microfilmed. A cover sheet indicated potential difficulties with the records.

If I had just skipped to the entry I needed, I never would have learned that it was believed that a significant number (never specifically stated) had errors.

And that was something I need to know.

Don't just jump to the index or the page you need. Authors don't just create introductions and prefaces to fill space.

25 June 2011

Search boxes that allow us to quickly find census and other records have changed the way genealogists locate many records and save time.

However, there is still an advantage to browsing through that census record when one family has been located using an index. Read other names on the same page and adjacent pages. There may be other family members you did not think to look for, or whose names are so mangled they were not located using indexes. Also pay attention to the places of birth for these near neighbors-they may have followed the same path of migration as your ancestor as well.

24 June 2011

So you've found your ancestor in a personal property tax list? What was required to be in the tax list? Did the person have to be a certain age, have a certain amount of personal property, etc.? If you don't know the criteria for appearing on the list, you may be interpreting something incorrectly.

23 June 2011

Not every location organizes records in the same way. A marriage index indicated my wife's great-grandparents were married in Burlington, Iowa. I had the date, the location, and their names. I figured with the date it would not be difficult to find their actual marriage record.

When viewing the records on microfilm, I assumed they were filmed in order of license number, or perhaps by date. I looked and they seemed to be in random order.

Then I realized that the records had been sorted by the name of the groom!

22 June 2011

In reading through Civil War pension applications, the one thing that amazes me is the number of people who really didn't know when they were born. Some people did know their date of birth and gave their age consistently. Others apparently only knew their approximate age.

21 June 2011

Every so often, read an article, blog post, etc. about a family or location completely unrelated to your personal research.

You likely won't find information on your own family. But sometimes reading about something with which you are unfamiliar gets you thinking "outside the box" on your own family and causes inspiration to strike. And sometimes it just gets you out of that rut.

20 June 2011

Every few weeks take a look at what is on FamilySearch http://www.familysearch.org. New information is being added on a regular basis. We are talking about indexes to actual records and images of actual records here, not compiled genealogies and submitted "trees."

19 June 2011

Is it possible that some of your ancestor's children were sent to live with neighbors or strangers? That may explain why you cannot find them as children in a census. Your ancestors might not have been able to take care of all fifteen children, or an older relative without children of their own may have needed some extra help around the house or the farm.

18 June 2011

Make certain when you get a copy of a deed or transcribe a land record that you look at where the deed was acknowledged. Those acknowledgements might have been done a distance from where the property was located (and where the deed was recorded). If the sellers have moved or are heirs who never lived in the area, those acknowledgements may give a clue as to where they were living at the time the deed was executed.

17 June 2011

If you are travelling a distance to do research, , do more than just make certain the records office will be open when you are planning to arrive. Find out if there are any days to "avoid" using the facility. Some small courthouses have court on certain days of the week only--these are days to avoid. If you arrive when offices are being remodeled, accessing things may be difficult.

And you may be told to wait to come until "Gertrude comes back from vacation. She knows where everything is."

It's not always possible to schedule a visit perfectly, but sometimes you can maximize the chances you have the best research experience possible.

Don't assume your ancestor moved infrequently. Some people did move rarely and others moved every few years. It might have just been your ancestor's wanderlust that kept him or her moving constantly. Or it could have been the local law, too.

Seriously--a relative of mine whose Civil War pension file I have appears to have moved at least a dozen times between 1850 and 1890. And she very well could have moved a few more that simply were not documented in the file.

I just assumed that a genealogist I had known for ages had correctly transcribed a date from a Virginia land record correctly. When I reviewed the record myself the date had been transcribed 10 years incorrectly. In this case, the year made a difference as it was used in part of an estimate of someone's year of death.

We can all easily make mistakes. It pays to check--your own work as well as someone else's. Sometimes mistakes are minor and sometimes they are not.

13 June 2011

Never assume that your relative was too insignificant to have been effected by historical events. A step-ancestor who was a native of Canada, decided that the American Civil War was the prime time to leave the state of Missouri and return to his native country.

11 June 2011

If your ancestor had a guardian appointed, look at when the guardian was released. It should be a clue as to approximately when the person for whom the guardian was appointed had reached the age of majority--typically 18 for females and 21 for males. A clue as to approximate year of birth.

10 June 2011

Think about who might have written the obituary of Grandma that appeared in the newspaper. Was it a family member with "issues?" Was it someone who wanted certain people left out? Was it someone concerned with being entirely accurate? Unless you were involved first hand in the planning, you might not really know who wrote the obit. And who wrote it makes all the difference.

09 June 2011

I was using an index to land records that covered the first fifty or so years of the county's land records. One entry was difficult to read. The volume was legible--the page wasn't. Afraid I'd have to go page by page, I viewed the volume and there in the front was an index to just that volume, giving me the actual page number.

The clerk compiled indexes to each volume as they were recorded and years later, a more comprehensive index was created.

08 June 2011

You can obtain a lot of information via libraries, microfilm, published books, etc. You can get help from people who have never stepped foot near where your ancestor lived.

And sometimes it is extremely helpful to ask a local. They may know about unpublished, local sources that are difficult to access or have other "tricks" up their sleeve based upon years of experience with local families.

Make certain the county or record agency does not also have copies of delayed certificates. Sometimes if a certificate was not filed when the event took place, one will be filed later. This is is most commonly done with birth certificates and generally when the person "needed" their birth certificate and realized that they did not have one.

There may be copies of affidavits or statements as a part of the delayed record and these records may be filed separately from the originals. These are usually filed where the birth took place, but there are always exceptions.

06 June 2011

There is still time and room to join me on my annual research trip to the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We have a great time and work on problem-solving and research while the library is open.

Even if an entry in a death certificate or other record appears to be incorrect, keep in mind that, on the surface, it can be hard to determine what's right and what's not.

A relative's death certificate listed her "mother's maiden name" as "Mrs. Little." Confusing--and I originally thought that maybe the "mother" had married after the father's death and that "Mrs. Little" was her name at death instead of her maiden name.

Turns out Liddell WAS her maiden name.

And the "Mrs." reference? Who knows. It easily could just have been an error.

05 June 2011

Don't forget that there was a special 1890 US census enumeration that included Civil War veterans and Civil War veteran's widows. Unfortunately returns for states whose name begins with the letters A-K were mostly destroyed. These have been microfilmed by the National Archives, NARA microfilm M123 and are online at Family Search.

03 June 2011

A deed may have the date it was signed, the date it was acknowledged, and the date it was recorded. Make certain you indicate which is which. They can be clues in some cases. A husband and wife executed a deed in 1814 in Kentucky and by the time it was acknowledged a month later, the wife is listed as a widow. This allowed me to approximate the date of death for the husband.

02 June 2011

If a family sold a deceased parent's land after the parent died, not all of the children might have lived near where the property was located. They might have been sent copies of deed, told to acknowledge it in front of a local official, and mail back the information. That acknowledgement would have been recorded with the actual deed.

That's how a deed for my ancestor's White County, Indiana, farm in the 1860s told me the counties in Iowa, Illinois, and Louisiana where his children were living.

Don't neglect to read the acknowledgements on a deed--they may hold clues as to where heirs are living.

Michael's Blogs

Using Tip of The Day

Casefile Clues

My weekly how-to newsletter focusing on records, analysis, and methodology. Not just copied and pasted how-to material. Real stories on real research of real ancestors.

Welcome!

Every day a fresh, short idea to get your genealogy research started. Tips are archived here and also appear on Facebook. Scroll down for ways to receive the tips and to interact with other tip readers.

Tips are usually generated while I'm doing my own research--often for my weekly how-to genealogy newsletter, Casefile Clues. Tips are down-to-earth and realistic. I'm very much engaged in active genealogy research--not just writing about it. You won't find copied and pasted stuff here--tips are made up fresh and on the fly. Once in a while we may have a similar tip from a year or so ago, but they aren't recycled.

Tips are free and suggestions are welcomed.

Enjoy!

And let others know about Genealogy Tip of the Day. It is really appreciated when you spread the news!